Things are looking pretty bleak

I don't know what to say today. I assume that everyone has heard of Greece's bankruptcy and today's demonstration cum riot. Athens was in flames, yet again. And three people died, innocent bystanders who were forced to go to work today under the threat of losing their jobs. Their bank caught fire, and they died of asphyxiation. The whole country is broken up over it.





We - the Greeks - have been sitting on tender-hooks for the past weeks waiting to see how our government will deal with the country's bankruptcy and the IMF's unbelievable demands. Slowly slowly the new measures had been made public, as if they were - rightly so - afraid to tell us everything at once. And slowly slowly we had been getting more and more angry.

I remember reading the newspaper on the bus to work this Monday (the Monday after Mayday). The news made me sad and depressed and very very angry.
-Taxes became unbearable - now even I, who barely make ends meet with my pitiful wage, will have to pay taxes.
-The VAT rose - and then threatened to rise again.
-Public service bills (electric, water, telephone) will go up yet again.
-Our pathetically low wages have been frozen (but not the cost of living).
-Unemployment benefits have been cut.
-Pensions have been cut.
-Civil sector wages and bonuses have been cut. (A friend of mine with two kids who works for the state says she and her husband will most probably be forced to move to a smaller apartment now.)
-Civil sector workers have been cut down ( starting with the school teachers!).
-The age of retirement has gone up.
-Compensations for firing employees have been cut.
The IMF also wanted the 40hour week to be abolished! No wonder they waited until after Mayday to go public with the news!

All in all it feels like we are forced to become guinea-pigs for some inhuman hyper-capitalist free-market experiment. And it chaffs, because I have always been a proponent of socialism and the welfare state.

An (anarchist) friend of mine is strangely optimistic. He believes that in two years or so, Greece will collapse and pull the whole of Europe down with it. And then, by necessity, the revolution will come! I wish I were as optimistic. I can definitely see Europe collapsing into a broken bankrupt mess, but I believe that then China will take over the world, and we will be left to starve on the rubble of our civilisation.

Sorry I'm feeling a bit melodramatic tonight, but wouldn't you be?

PS. If you want to get depressed, check out these photos on athensville's blog.